Supreme Court Rules No Union Recruiting on California Farms

In a 6-3 decision, the United States Supreme Court in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid ruled in favor of California agriculture businesses who challenged a decades old California regulation allowing union organizers onto the farm to organize workers. 

The 1975 “right of access” regulation granted unions access to farms and other agriculture businesses for up to three hours per day, 120 days per year, in order to organize workers.  Chief Justice John Roberts writing for the majority said that “The access regulation amounts to simple appropriation of private property.”  He also stated that the right of access effectively allowed the government to physically acquire private property for public use and, therefore, obligates the government to provide the business owner with just compensation.

The ruling effectively halts efforts of agricultural labor union to engage in on-the-job organizing.  The United Farm Workers of America quickly responded to the ruling on Twitter, stating that “Today’s ruling…makes a racist, broken farm labor system even more unequal.”

A copy of the opinion is available here.

This article was originally prepared by David W. Kahn (dkahn@kschanford.com) of Kahn, Soares & Conway in Hanford, CA, and is republished with permission.

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